This project is a joint venture between the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and the University of California, Los Angeles to demonstrate a sensing package that will enable highly significant scientific, commercial, and defense programs to be underatken much more cost-effectively. In particular this effort can provide critical hardware to support surveillance and security efforts.

The PAUSE aerobot is comprised of a zero-pressure balloon and a protoype Mars aerobot science gondola. The gondola is comprised of a magnetometer, IMU, multiple temperature sensors, a pressure sensor, three imagers, a GPS receiver, 1GB data storage device, and a radio modem. The gondola is lightweight (3.3 kg) and consumes little power (~3 watts). This aerobot recently deployed in the Earth's Stratosphere (35km) to simulate the Martian Environment.

Aerobots can be used to fill the gap between an orbiter (which can cover a lot of area but has limited resolution) and a rover (which has high resolution but covers a limited area). Airborne Robots (aerobots) are unmanned scientific exploration vehicles designed to float for up to several months in the atmospheres of planets and moons.